Dragan Ilić, president of the trade union in the armament factory in the city of Kragujevac got fired on monday.
Ilić got fired after a series of threats by the management, which Masina reported about earlier.
According to the statement Ilić gave us, the grounds of the notice were officially attributed to his failure to properly check in and out of the factory. Ilić added that he was not informed in time that the check in procedure had been changed.
Dragan ilić got fired after spending 39 years in Zastava arms and over 15 years as an active member of the company’s trade union organisation.
As the president of the trade union organisation, Ilić lead workers’ strikes in April and May 2018, when the workers asked for better working conditions, rises, and the exclusion of Serbia’s defence industry from privatisation.
He also acts as a representative of publicly owned capital in the company’s Assembly – which could have motivated the pressures Ilić has been enduring even after the strikes had ended.
After last years’ strikes Ilić has faced several criminal charges, salary reduction, detention, threats, and tapping of phone conversations, while the trade union organisation has been inspected by the tax service and the financial police.
A.J.
Translation from Serbian: Iskra Krstić
This article was originally published in Serbian on Apr 9, 2019.
